How small changes in Boat Building create big waves

The paradigm shift from wood and steel to fibreglass boats created a revolution in the modern boatbuilding industry. Since then, there were many significant transitions in conventional fibreglass construction methods regarding materials and techniques, which improved the boat quality.

As responsible boat builders, we know the importance of energy efficiency. Therefore, we are investigating ways to make a fuel-efficient boat lighter without any loss in strength.

We use Isophthalic polyester resins, which are higher-grade and offer higher strength, better flexibility. Earlier, marine plywood was used as the core material, but it is never a good choice as these are water absorbents. Once the fibreglass material is damaged, water will permeate, and the underlying plywood will rot. It will subsequently cause hull blistering, which will draw unnecessary attention. Another disadvantage of the absorption of resin making the hull heavier

Since the core is an integral part of the boat giving the stiffness, we finalised using PVC material core after carrying out adequate research. PVC foam with deficient moisture absorption and self-extinguishing property will not rot quickly. It also offers good bonding with standard adhesives and resin.

With these most crucial changes in material, our boats are much lower in weight with improved speed. Once the boat is light, the next important step is to make the underwater shape optimised to get low resistance. The savings in this lowering resistance yields benefit in fuel saving for the next twenty-year operation of the boat. Hence this is an important exercise. The two combined effects can reduce the power requirement for a 6-knot speed 75 passenger vessel from 50 kW in steel/wood to 15 kW for GRP/aluminium.

The efficiently designed hull form with low drag and the right choice of materials approved by IACS (Classification society) ensures better performance of our boats. In addition, our vessel like Aditya and Vega needs lesser power to operate without compromising the speed.

We are constantly researching cost-effective improvements in materials and techniques that could improve vessel performance with high energy efficiency.